Please consider how you might be able to symbolically invite these people to your table. By sharing your resources, you take ownership of the important work of Unitarian Universalist Service Committee. You are “voting” for these projects with your dollars. Is this work worth spending a little less money on something else?
 
The donation boxes will be collected at the end of December. Donations are tax deductible; donors of $10 or more will receive a tax receipt from UUSC if they include their name and address with the donation. If you prefer to write a check, please make it to UUSC with Untarian Universalist Church of Oak Cliff in the memo.

Turtle Creek Chorale | Monday October 18th

Glorian asked me to let you all know about Monday night’s “A Night for Peace” concert by the Turtle Creek Chorale. Find out more by clicking the image above or going here: http://www.turtlecreek.org/concerts/tickets/index.php?tktid=PIH.

Here’s the description from the Turtle Creek Chorale’s website:

Our Partners In Harmony program began seven years ago. Its mission is to appeal to religious organizations that affirm our belief that every human being is created equal. Today, Partners in Harmony comprises over 40 religious institutions. This concert features the Turtle Creek Chorale, the SMU Meadows Chorale, the Dallas Wind Symphony, the Lay Family Organ and over 300 singers comprising a Partners In Harmony massed choir performing peace anthems by Bach, Mendelssohn and Moses Hogan. Also on the program is John Rutter’s electrifying GLORIA for brass, percussion, organ and chorus.

Kathy puts her heart into it | Photo Credit: Ian Grey

Last week I painted the world, and that weekend I attended the Alan Ross Texas Freedom Parade 2010.
This parade, the largest in Texas, has been held for the last twenty-seven years, and is Dallas’s annual gay pride parade.

This year, as in others, NTAUUS (the North Texas Association of Unitarian Universalist Societies) had a float for the parade. This year’s theme was “One Heart, One World, One Pride.” We began creating the earth a month before the parade. Using a very large balloon, the students and teachers from the UUCOC Religious Education program built a four-foot papier mache’ globe, and painted it blue. Once the blue paint had dried, my job was to add the continents. I first tried to draw them freehand, but that was less than effective. Instead, I chalked the equator, prime meridian, and other latitude and longitude lines for reference. I used the lines as if they were graph paper, and with a smaller globe nearby for reference, outlined the continents. A week later, the continents were all in place, and painted.

At the same time I was charting the world, my mother was constructing the giant yellow heart that we all recognize from the “Standing on the Side of Love” campaign logo. The heart would also be part of our float. My mother and I arrived at church every morning, and stayed until late in the afternoon, for a solid week completing both of these projects.

On Saturday, the day before parade day, my mother and I went to the church early, to meet Marcia and the rental truck. Carefully, we loaded the globe onto the truck, and secured it as well as we could. We drove to First Church in Dallas together, with Marcia driving the truck, me in the back protecting the globe, and my mother following us in her car, with the heart. Parts of the ride were harrowing, but we managed to get everything there in one piece.

The next step was to figure out how everything would go together, test it, take it apart, and then rebuild it all outside later that day, so it would be ready for attachment on Sunday.

Lifting the Globe | Photo Credit: Kathy Grey

On Sunday, we spent three hours making the float ready for the parade. In addition to the actual float, which included PVC tower adorned with banners, the globe (which sat atop the tower) and the heart, there were more 200 people representing almost all of the NTAUUS-affiliated churches, all carrying signs, and bursting with pride, Pride, PRIDE! We found later that we were the largest delegation from a religious organization.

Officially, there were 92 entries in the parade, and we were number thirty-one, which meant it was nearly an hour of impatience and exhaustion before we actually marched anywhere. I confess, that once we were moving I was terrified that the globe I’d spent so much time on would topple off the tower, but it didn’t, which left me free to help pass out hundreds of fans to spectators and fellow marchers alike. In fact, I was so energized by everything working as it should that my exhaustion evaporated, and I was able to actually run the fans from the truck to the people.

Several hours later, after the party had ended and the float had been dismantled, we regrouped at First Church where Daniel Polk (NTAUUS president and our group’s parade leader) showed off the trophy we had been given as our award for best social commentary.

And the winner is... | Photo Credit: Ian Grey

An Invitation to UUCOC Friends and Families:

Are you a NEW dad? Have you recently become a SURROGATE or FOSTER dad? Are you negotiating a new role as a GRANDFATHER, or anticipating becoming a FATHER yourself? Do you have “DAD WISDOM” to share with other fathers?

Reverend Marcia Shannon is looking for four or five fathers (or fathers-to-be) to each present a three-to-five minute reflection on Father’s Day, June 20th, 2010.

Your words can be silly or serious, passionate or poignant; what’s important is that they come from you. If your paternal reflections are better expressed through song, poetry, art, dance or drama, please consider volunteering to share a favorite reading, decorate the altar for worship, sing special music, donate baked goods, or prepare a dramatic moment for this special Congregational Service.

If you are interested in participating, please contact Marcia as soon as possible.

Please note that attendance at a Saturday afternoon/evening rehearsal will expected of all participants.

I found an excellent website to help me in my search: http://www.ewg.org/cellphoneradiation. On this site, you are able to look up your current cell phone to find out its radiation level. Another link ranks cell phones by radiation levels while another discusses the 10 cell phones with the best radiation levels. Still another link discusses new 2010 cell phones and which emit the most and the least radiation.

Best of all there is a 42-page document detailing “everything-you-ever-wanted-to-know” about cell phone radiation written by the Environmental Working Group. It is called “Cell Phone Radiation – Science Review on Cancer Risks and Children’s Health”.

This document details recent studies done on cell phone radiation around the world and discusses their findings. Three major problem areas are associated with cell phone use: brain tumors, behavioral problems in young children and migraines and vertigo. Multiple studies show an increase in these health challenges with increased cell phone usage. The countries of Germany, Switzerland, Israel , UK, France, Finland and the European Parliament, believe the findings warrant alerting their public to the possible risks.

The recommendations of the document entail requiring the U.S. government to label cell phones with their radiation emissions and requiring the cell phone industry to offer cell phones to the public with the least possible amount of radiation. People should be made aware of the dangers of frequent and lengthy cell phone conversations—the phone should be in speaker mode or a headset should be worn. Protect yourself, your family and your friends. Pass the word!

NORTH TEXAS ASSOCIATION OF UNITARIAN UNIVERSALIST SOCIETIES
Spring Luncheon

March 27, 2010
First Unitarian Dallas, 4015 Normandy Avenue, Dallas, TX 75205-1750
Social Hour, 12.30, Lunch at 1.00 p.m.
Tickets are only $10 and are purchased from your Churchʼs NTAUUS board member.
Parking – There is some street parking to the west of the church in addition to the
Church lot on the south side of our property, if construction is not in the way. Carpooling is encouraged.

If you would like to attend, see me on Sunday for tickets. If you would like to reserve your tickets, email me at ravenmae13@gmail.com

I will posting fliers on Sunday to give everyone an idea of what to expect.

Hope you can make it!

Blessings,
Raven